Selling My Wii, For Reals
July 24, 2008

I know that I've talked about it before, but I'm finally getting around to doing it. I'll be distributing fliers at work advertising that my Wii is for sale. I figure, the sheer fact that I haven't unpacked it since moving has to say something about my love of the system. My recent PS3 purchase has ground the idea of keeping the Wii into the ground - I just plain don't like the Wii's line-up. I do admit that there's a few good games out there that I haven't picked up, but I feel like they don't really warrant keeping the system.

It also doesn't help that I can't hook it up to my monitor, and it requires a TV since it only has analog output. Unfortunate indeed, but the Wii is also something that I couldn't play from my office chair.

So, the Wii is going up for sale whether it likes it or not. I'll be selling it off for $250 to friends or coworkers, or putting it up on eBay to try to get more money out of the little guy. I figure that it'll put a nice dent into the PS3's price that I've just paid and finally get it to stop collecting dust in my house.

Goodbye Wii!

I'm Sorry Wii, but I Don't Like You
April 02, 2008

I know, I'm going back one what I said over a year ago - but I'm convinced now that the Wii really wasn't a great purchase. It's OK, really. A mediocre system with 0.02% mediocre games and 99.98% Disney Cartoons. The clearly dazed middle aged man in GameStop said it best to his little son the other day when he said; "Gosh Timmy, look at all these littlekid games. Wouldn't you love to have one of these?". The Wii, and to a large extent the DS, is nothing more than a system to play Disney Cartoons on. Oh sure, you can trot out Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Brothers Brawl (*yawn*, I played that on the GC ten light years ago) - or you can bring up No More Heroes or Zach and Wiki. In almost three years, there have only been enough decent games released to be counted on my fingers. That's pretty sad.

At this point I've bought most of the big releases (Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros) and been fairly disappointed. Nay, I've been disappointed. Smash Bros really was a *yawn*rific game because it really is the GC version. The Wiimote isn't even used, you can play the whole thing with a GC controller no less. Metroid Prime 3 was annoying with all it's "I want to be Shadow of the Collosus and make the entire game into boss battles". Mario Galaxy actually got some time out of me, but the lack of story really bored me. Zelda:TP is about the only "good" game that I've seen released on the Wii and even it has its problems; what with the linearity of it all. Even with all this supposed gaming goodness, my Wii and many others' is simply gathering dust.

Down the pike, Fire Emblem sounds interesting (already released, I know) and I would like to pick it up and try it - but there's just too many bad games for the Wii that I'm leary at this point. Even Mario Kart is not very interesting to me; given what they've done with Smash Bros I forsee Mario Kart also not using the Wiimote and being Mario Kart: DD with improved graphics. *woohoo*. Halo 3 demonstrated more innovation over Halo 2 than Smash Bros Wii did over Smash Bro GC. That's right, I went there.

Anyway. This is a long winded post to basically say, Nintendo - I think you fucked up bad. The GameCube was a failure with about 3 games released for it and I hoped the Wii would be different. Alas, it wasn't. It really is the GameCube Turbo and Smash Bro's Brawl has proven that. The system had a lot of potential, but it failed to live up to it and I think that I'm generally done with it now. This may shock you, but I think I may actually put my system up on eBay. Frankly, I'm 24 and don't want to play Hannah Montana Returns to Middle School. Goodnight Wii, I think I may finally be done with you.

Yae!
May 30, 2007

Sooo... guess what Emily got me tonight? That's right! A DS Lite! I love it. Seriously, after handling the DS for so long the DS Lite is like a welcome breath of sexy small electronics fresh air. Anyway, here's to the best wife ever!

Edit: Yes, Emily and I can now play multiplayer DS games! Pro-tip: She kicks ass at Tetris. All we need to do now is get her interested in nukes and vodka and she'll be a regular Russian!

Weekend Project: Reclaim the DS
January 15, 2007

Well, the Wii seems to have done it. E. now plays video games. I never thought that I'd get to say that, but she's absolutely hooked on Yoshi's Island 2 at the moment. I have no idea what has drawn her into this dark world of blinking pixels and bobbing music, but she has officially broken free of Wii Sports and is now beginning to dip her feet into the pond of /real games/.

I've determined that the next step in her descent is to get her hooked on PC games. Why? Their multiplayer kicks ass. Oh, sure. I could spend $130 and buy another DS to play some minigames over Wi-Fi with her - but I'd much rather get her into a full-fledged match of Quake 3, Battlefield or Diablo 2. I mean, who wouldn't want a steady gaming partner like that?

Alright guys, so what PC games would you recommend for hooking someone in that likes to throw things when they become frustrated?

Wii Hits St. Cloud
November 19, 2006

Well, it's official - I will be living with Andy and Mike now. That's right Emily, pack up your bags and your Babbles because they have a Wii. They were originally planning on camping out the night before and being able to be among the first ones to grab it, but it appeared that there really weren't that many people in St. Cloud who were interested (Gee, whoda thunk?). They showed up at Target right before it opened, and got in line. Apparently the Target here in town got 27 units - while the ebgames only got 6. SIX. Thankfully they managed to be in line before the sad 28th person. How sad must they be? Very sad indeed.

Sadly, the only multiplayer game that they got was Wii Sports. The level of suckage that I displayed at Wii golf is second to none - but it was fun whirling the little Wiimote around while watching the others around me groan with pain. I suck at golf, and I really suck at Wii golf. It actually takes into account spin as well as force and direction. Veeery interesting. I can't wait for them to get Red Steel so that I may feel the katana* wielding joy of the Wiimote in it's fullest.

Twilight Princess is also looking to be quite entertaining. I watched Mike herd goats for about ten minutes, and was enthralled. The graphics really are quite nice and the interface system is stellar. Sadly, I'm sick with a cold so I didn't want to stay too long and infect them all. I've already done a fine enough job spreading the Caturday infection.

I'm looking forward to the Wii getting some more titles so that I can justify buying one. Hmm. I'd better not say that too loud, Emily might kill me. I already take over enough of her precious TV time by playing Final Fantasy. Thankfully the laptop doesn't have TV out, or she would also be exposed to mass quantities of anime.

* An interesting note; this is what Firefox suggests as the "correct" spelling of katana: Watanabe .

Wii, Breaking Nintendo's Just For Kid's Reputation
October 02, 2006

So, I'm sure that by now you've heard of the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo's (soon to be) newest offering to the growing console market. I'm sure that you've also heard many online proponents proclaiming their joy that Nintendo's new release line including Zelda and Red Steel appear more "adult" than their other offerings; that Nintendo will be breaking free of it's "childish" roots and growing into a more adult oriented business.

Odd... my friend Chris (Ryoseth) is always playing Halo on Xbox Live when I come over... the only voices I ever hear are those of ten year old boys. Advertising for the latest Xbox games involves adult activities overlayed with the voices of the small children who are actually playing them. I really don't see all that many small children browsing the GameCube and DS games when I wander through their wares at the local gaming emporiums. I think that it would be fair to offer that on my (narrow sampling) of a priori statistics that the Xbox caters more to small children than Nintendo's offerings.

I think that it takes someone a little bit more mature to be willing to play Nintendo's offerings - since they don't boast of manly valor and womanly boobs. They're often stories about losing a sibling and rescuing a lost animal; something that I'm sure most ten year olds (who all want to be "big kids") aren't concerned with. Meanwhile, I'm perfectly content to sit at home plugged on my couch searching for my sister who was carried away by an evil bird.

Frankly, I can't wait for the Wii to come out. I forsee the new controller being a) fantastic or b) abysmal. Since Nintendo is staking the entire console on it and the DS has done so well, I'm betting that they can pull it off. I really hope that Andy or Chris really do buy a Wii so that we can have Wii parties at their apartment until I can scrape together money for my own Wii. Weeeh!